Jayaraj says that he had to cancel a film project with Mohanlal at the last moment. Ace Malayalam film-maker Jayaraj is undoubtedly one of the best directors in the country. He has brought many national and international laurels to the state with many of his movies widely appreciated for its impeccable artistic quality. Jayaraj, who entered the filmdom as an assistant to the legendary film-maker Bharathan has directed many unforgettable movies in his incredible career spanning 25 years.
However, the award winning director hasn’t so far directed a movie with Mollywood superstar Mohanlal in the lead role. In an interview with a leading TV channel, the film maker opened up about the reason why he hasn’t worked with the screen icon. He says, “I am sure that if both of us collaborate for a project, it would be the most amazing movie ever made in Malayalam. But it is very unlikely that such a project would happen at all. It was after Deshadanam that Mohanlal’s company offered me a film. At that time, I had a movie on my mind, with rain the the backdrop. I wished to do it with Mohanlal, and even the costumes were purchased for it,” he said.
The songs for that movie were also recorded. But due to some unavoidable circumstances in Jayaraj's life the project had to be shelved for the time being, Jayaraj said. “That incident may have pained him greatly. Later even though I approached him with many scripts, nothing happened,” he added.
Jayaraj said that though he had given Mohanlal the script of Kunjali Marakkar, the latter kept it with him for almost three years without even giving any feedback to the director. “I gave him the script of Veeram in the form of sketches. But he went through it and asked whether a project of that sort was practical,” says the award winning film-maker.
The director of the film Bhayanakam, for which he had won the national award recently, said that Mohanlal evaded him whenever the former approached him with other movie projects. However, he added that Mohanlal avoided him as the pain of the discarded project might have haunted him.
Jayaraj said that he cancelled the project with Mohanlal at the last moment when the filming was about to begin at a scheduled location.
“My decision to back out of the project, though due to an inevitable reason, may have saddened him. He was on a vacation with his family somewhere in South Africa at that time. He cut short the trip and came back leaving his family behind for this movie. Mohanlal came to know about the project being scrapped only when he reached here. He just said, 'Couldn’t you have informed me earlier?' It was a grave mistake on my part.”
The film-maker believes that another project with Mohanlal didn’t happen after that episode because the superstar still carries the pain in his heart. He said that this had in fact deprived the Malayalam cinema of an extraordinary movie. “If he is ready to work with me then I am ready too. If that happens then I truly wish that film to be the most amazing movie in his entire career,” says Jayaraj.
